The Net Generation

I've been reading a lot of books lately about the Net Generation in preparation for a new course I'm teaching at Rutgers. Two of the books are "must-reads" for anyone involved in planning for the future of higher education:

The first book is Mark Prensky's Digital Game Based Learning. Don't let the title fool you--it's about much more than video games. The first five chapters examine the natural ways that the Net Generation learns and how educators are causing students to "power down" in school. Prensky coined the terms, "digital native" and "digital immigrant" and talks about making education learner-centered instead of content-centered.

The second book was released last month. "Grown Up Digital," written by Don Tapscott, identifies eight norms of the Net Generation. In brief, they want freedom, the ability to customize and personalize, entertainment and play in work and education, opportunities to collaborate, speed, opportunities to innovate, corporate integrity and openness, and transparency.